To call the increase in the amount of UK waste being exported to mainland Europe as refuse derived fuel (RDF) over the past few years ‘dramatic’ would be an understatement. Growth from around 270,000 tonnes in 2011 to over 1,500,000 tonnes in 2013 has now been surpassed with current tonnages of 800,000 in the first quarter of 2014. With landfill around £100/t, exporting residual waste to take advantage of low gate fees at underused European incinerators is an enticing prospect. Recently, this prospect has become relevant not only to waste companies managing C&I waste but also to those handling municipal waste. And with European facilities usually considerably more efficient than those in the UK – harnessing heat in addition to generating electricity – there can even be a strong environmental case for export.

Today the Press Complaints Commission (PCC) has published a brief report on the last of the complaints I raised about the Daily Mail’s negative coverage of recycling issues, and I thought I should give Isonomia readers an update.

Why is it that we export recyclate? The Daily Mail’s outrage regarding exports back in April may have been fuelled by the mistaken belief that much of the material is landfilled, but to some the fact that we ship recyclate overseas is quite outrageous enough: Doretta Cocks was reported as calling the practice “shameful”.

What do you think the municipal solid waste of the future is going to be like? Recycling rates may have seen a downward blip last quarter, but if we’re to meet our targets you can rest assured they’ll resume their upward trend. That means less paper, card and plastic in the residual mix, and more organic material being separately collected for composting and anaerobic digestion. This entirely foreseeable trend has really profound implications for the waste to energy industry that we seem not to be taking account of – but which I believe will be soluble with the right technology.

With so much of our environmental legislation having its roots in Europe, it surprises me that there is so little discussion, even in the trade press, of the direction that European waste policy seems to be taking. Perhaps the view is that, what matters are concrete proposals that have been through the Parliament and are backed by the European Council. Until we have them, speeches of Commissioners like Janez Potočnik are just so much hot air and documents like the Roadmap to a Resource Efficient Europe destined for the recycling bin.

The Daily Mail ran an extraordinary story on its front page on 6th April, claiming that 12m tons (sic.) of material collected as household recycling is in fact being landfilled overseas. The article also reports that official statistics showing a recycling rate of 43% of household waste are overstated because “in reality, processors reject most recyclable material, which then often ends up in landfill sites.”

What happens to your unwanted clothes when you get rid of them? The question is particularly pressing at Christmas, when our powerful gift giving customs may leave us with unwearable, unreturnable, unwanted clothing: a hideous Christmas jumper, perhaps, destined to be worn only once; or some thick woollen socks (very much like marmite, you either love them or you hate them); or perhaps your new gloves will prompt you to get rid of that old pair with a hole in. At this time of year, clothing of all degrees of quality is destined for the bin.